Have your friends and family been naughty or nice this year? There might be …

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The concept behind Nice List is simple enough: it's an application that allows the user to create a shopping list. The user can organize the list by recipients, assign monetary values to each item, and then check off steps of the gift-giving progress, including the purchasing, wrapping, and shipping. It isn't a new concept, and won't be the last application of its kind to appear on the iTunes Store. But, especially during this time of year, most people can use any help they can get.

The application is simple and the UI is equally so. Adding recipients is a matter of touching the '+' button and then entering the name through the standard iPhone keyboard, while the application offers real-time name suggestions by tapping into the device's address book. The feature isn't necessary, but it's a nice touch and does save you a small amount of time.

After you have a name entered, you can then begin adding gifts. Instead of entering gifts and then picking from a list of recipients, you instead select the recipient's name, and the application brings you to a new list specific to that person. Adding a gift can then be done by once again touching the '+' button and then entering a gift name and a value. Unfortunately, the application only allows the user to enter anything but whole dollar amounts. This means that while your totals will be close, they aren't going to be exact.

After entering in gift information, the amount spent and amount remaining to be spent can be viewed at the bottom of the screen while the progress completed on each item is represented by attractive icons. These are grayed out until the user touches them, at which time they gain color, indicating their completion. Similarly, when viewing the recipients list, the money spent and amount needed to be spent is listed. The number of gifts that require all three steps are also indicated by an "x Gifts Remaining" label under a user's name.

If you want to eliminate the shipping aspect, the application does allow the user to take that out of the process via preferences. Unfortunately, this setting is all or nothing; if you need to ship some gifts but not others, you might as well just leave the feature on.

Perhaps my favorite feature in the application is the ability to add a four-digit passcode to protect your list from those individuals who can't wait a few weeks. I had a few problems getting to the preferences, which can ordinarily be entered by clicking the "i" in the lower right hand corner of the screen, but a restart of my device fixed that.

My issues with the app are few: cent amounts are not possible, the app only allows for US currency despite the developer being from New Zealand(apparently, the application automatically sets the currency type for each user, a detail that we overlooked), you can't view a list of all items for all recipients (just gifts for a specific person), and there is no way to designate a place where the item will be purchased. If used as a real-time shopping list, this could result in multiple trips to the same store.

That said, the application in general is attractive, and the UI is simple and easy to navigate. Given a few more features, it would be a must-have for any holiday shopper. In its current state, it fits the bill for those types who store their entire lives on their iPhones. For those stingy folks out there, you may balk at the $2.99 price tag for an application that is meant to be used almost exclusively for Christmas-time.